privacy policy

Effective date: 17 July 2026

what skamp is

skamp is a personal idea-capture app that runs on your iPhone. we built it so your ideas never get lost in the moment of inspiration. this page describes what the app handles. and, more importantly, what it doesn't.

who we are

skamp is made by skamp ltd, a company registered in the united kingdom. for data-protection purposes, skamp ltd is the data controller for any personal information handled by the app. as the rest of this page explains, that's almost nothing, because almost nothing reaches us. you can reach us any time at hello@skamp.app.

the short version

there are no skamp servers. we never see your ideas.
there is no user account. we don't know who you are.
we don't collect analytics, tracking identifiers, or usage data.
your notes, photos, and voice recordings live on your device and, if you're signed into icloud, sync through your own icloud account.
voice notes are transcribed entirely on your phone. the audio never touches a server.
a shared nook is visible only to the people you bring into it, and it stays inside icloud.
the network calls the app makes are to Apple services (icloud sync and photo place names) and, when you save a link, to the website that link points at (to fetch its title and preview image). that's the full list.

what's stored on your device

your content

notes, photos, voice recordings are stored in skamp's private container on your iPhone. photos are saved as JPEG, voice notes as M4A, and notes as markdown text.
nooks, archive status, and timestamps live in an Apple on-device database inside the app's private directory.

if you have iCloud Backup enabled on your iPhone, Apple includes this data in your device backup. that backup is governed by Apple's privacy policy, not ours.

your preferences

theme, text size, and a handful of flags (for example, whether you've seen the welcome screen) are stored in iOS UserDefaults. none of this is personally identifiable. it's just UI state.

search index

skamp asks iOS to index your idea titles and a short content snippet in Spotlight so you can find ideas from the iPhone home screen. this index is managed by iOS and stays on your device.

your own icloud (sync)

if you're signed into icloud, skamp keeps your ideas in sync through your own icloud account: Apple's CloudKit private database for notes and nooks, and icloud storage for photos and voice recordings.
this is a private space that belongs to you. skamp ltd has no access to it, no key for it, and no server that ever touches it. syncing happens between your devices and Apple, encrypted by Apple in transit and in storage, under Apple's privacy policy.
skamp's data counts against your icloud storage allowance.
not signed into icloud? everything simply stays on the phone. the app tells you your ideas live only there.

shared nooks

you can bring people into a nook. sharing is per-nook and only ever something you start.

what's shared · everything in that nook: its notes, photos, and voice recordings, including ideas added later by you or by the people in it. your other nooks stay private.
who can see it · the people who open your invite. an invite travels as a link, and anyone who has the link can come in, so pass it only to the people you mean. you can see who's in a nook at any time, and switch a nook to invited-people-only in manage sharing.
names · people in a shared nook see each other's names as set on their icloud accounts. the invite message and invite page also carry the sender's first name and the nook's name, so the recipient knows what they're opening.
where it lives · a shared nook is stored in the owner's icloud, shared through Apple's CloudKit. it never passes through anything of ours.
leaving and removing · the owner can remove someone or stop sharing entirely at any time. if you leave a nook (or are removed), you lose access to it, including ideas you added.

what else leaves your device

naming the spot you snapped

when a photo carries a location, skamp asks Apple to turn the coordinates into a name for the spot you snapped (for example, "Wellington"). the coordinates go; the photo and your words never do. the answer is kept on your phone, so asking once is asking forever.
this is a standard Apple API call (CLGeocoder). no third parties are involved.

link previews

when you save a link, skamp fetches that page's title and preview image so the idea looks like the thing you saved. the request goes to the website the link points at (and, for youtube links, to youtube's preview service). it carries nothing about you beyond the request itself, and skamp adds no identifiers to it.

voice transcription

voice notes are transcribed with Apple's speech recognition running entirely on your phone. skamp requires on-device recognition, so the audio is never sent to any server, Apple's included. if a language isn't available on-device, skamp simply keeps the recording without a transcript.

that's everything

no analytics. no crash reporting. no ad networks. no telemetry. no tracking SDKs. no third-party identifiers. no server of our own.

the skamp.app website

skamp.app is a static page: no cookies, no analytics, no sign-in, and its fonts are served from our own site rather than a third party.
invite links open a page on skamp.app. the key that grants access rides in the part of the link after the #, which your browser keeps to itself. it is never sent to our web host, so nobody learns which nook an invite opens, us included.

permissions skamp requests

skamp only asks for a permission when you first use the feature that needs it:

camera · to take a photo in the snap capture mode.
microphone · to record a voice note in the talk capture mode.
speech recognition · to transcribe voice notes, on-device.
photo library · to read photo metadata (such as location) from photos you pick. the picker itself works without this permission.
location, while using the app · to attach the place to photos you capture. you can decline; photos just won't have location attached.
face id · to unlock nooks you've marked as private. face id is handled entirely by iOS; skamp never sees your biometric data.

you can change any of these in iOS Settings → Skamp at any time.

children's privacy

skamp is not directed at children under 13. we don't collect data from anyone. if a child uses skamp on a family device, their notes live on that device like anyone else's.

your rights

because skamp ltd holds none of your data, there is nothing on our side for you to access, correct, or request. you are in full control:

see your data · it's all visible inside the app.
delete it · delete ideas or nooks in the app and the deletion syncs everywhere skamp runs. deleting the app removes everything on that phone; if you use icloud sync, your synced copy stays in your own icloud until you delete it there too (iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Storage → Skamp).
leave a shared nook · any time, from the nook's people sheet. owners can stop sharing a nook entirely.
export it · tap the share icon on any idea to send it out via the iOS share sheet.

if you are in the uk or the european union, uk gdpr and eu gdpr give you additional rights, including the right to lodge a complaint with a data-protection authority if you think your rights have been breached. in the uk, that's the information commissioner's office (ico) at ico.org.uk. you can always reach us first at hello@skamp.app and we'll try to sort it out.

changes to this policy

if we ever change what the app stores or transmits, we'll update this page and bump the effective date at the top. the version that applies to you is always the one published here.

contact

questions or concerns? email hello@skamp.app.